With the Band
by Suki
Summary: The Three Lights aren't good at anything other than, well, being a band. So when three vibrant young women suddenly enter the scene, will they give in to a lesson in life, or go down fighting? [UM, US, TA, YM]
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I 'm afraid I don't own _Sailormoon_ or any of the characters therein. I do, however, own myself, my special guest appearance in this fic, this fic, and all the other little made-up, insignificant characters who go dwell in story-land after their brief cameos and become my pets._

_Author's Note: This contains Mamoru/Usagi, Seiya/Usagi, Taiki/Ami, and Yaten/Minako fiction which will very likely be continued in the near future. Being stuffed full of laffy taffy, Johnny Depp movies, and genuine discredibilty, I've kept this one on the lighter side. That being said, there should be something for everybody. Suki_

* * *

**1**

It was by far the single worst day in her entire life.

That morning, she woke late yet again. She was _supposed_ to meet Mamoru for breakfast, but since she overslept, she performed a balancing act of buttoning her blouse, brushing her teeth, and calling her sweetheart up on the phone to let him know she wouldn't be making it to their appointment.

He had every right to be annoyed.

"This is the third time this week, Usako," Mamoru sighed over the line.

"I'm sorry Mamo-chan. Pleeeeeease forgive me! We can reschedule tomorrow."

There was a pause. "I don't think so; why don't we just calm down for a while. Wait out these exams before we schedule any more breakfast meetings."

Usagi dropped her shoe and stood upright. "Are – are you sure?"

She could hear his smile through his tone of voice. "Yes. I want you to do well. And you just obviously don't have enough time for both college exams _and_ me right now."

"Oh, Mamo-chan," Usa murmured. "Is that what you think?"

"No, I know that if I didn't put a stop to it, you'd continue juggling school, work, family, and a relationship. And I just can't let you do that . . .."

"But we'll still have our Sunday meetings like usual?"

"Of coruse."

"Oh! And I have the perfect outing planned for us this wee – "

"Usa . . ."

"Yes?"

"You're going to be late."

"Oh my gosh!" And she dropped the phone promptly into the bathroom sink. "Shoot!" She cursed silently as she reached for the sopping electronic appliance and shook out the water. It was too late. She'd already lost the connection.

Rather than take the opportunity to gain her bearings, Usagi grabbed a bun from her kitchen, clutched her book bag, slammed through the door, stopped, turned right back around when she realized she wasn't wearing any shoes, caught her hair in the door as she was going back in, tripped over her cat Luna's water bowl, and went sprawling onto the carpet, with the bruised knee to prove it.

By the time she finally made it out of her apartment, it had started to rain.

To make matters worse, she had to walk.

When she got to class, she forced down her pride and submitted herself to her professor's criticism. She had to march up to the front of the class immediately, shoes squeaking, dripping as she went. Her presentation went all wrong, and her classmates were practically falling asleep as she spoke.

When class was over, her professor called her up privately to speak with him at his desk.

Usagi went, drooping.

Professor Miagowa folded his hands and regarded the young woman over them. She was really quite stunning, when she hadn't been dragged through the rain. She was petite and fine-boned, like a china doll, with delicate porcelain features to match. She wore her hair in two small, neat buns on the top and sides of her head, with gold wisps streaming from them like sunbeams. Her eyes were blue and wide, as if she found the world around her an extraordinary place. A permanent smile fastened itself languidly to her lips, as if she'd been born happy. Except for today. Today was just not her day.

"Tsukino-san . . .," Professor Miagowa started, "why do you want to be a nurse?"

"W-why, sir?"

"Yes."

"Well, I . . .." Usagi trailed off, wracking her brains furiously for a correct answer.

"Tell me honestly."

She licked her lips and lowered her eyes. She inhaled. Her eyes flickered up determinedly. "I want to help people."

Professor Miagowa leaned back in his chair.

"I want to ease the pain of the sick, and help the broken-hearted to smile again. If I can do just a little, a very little, to relieve the burdens of others, then . . . well, then, I'd say I've done my job." She crossed her hands behind her hands expectantly, like a small schoolgirl awaiting scolding.

But the scolding did not come. Instead, Miagowa rose without speaking and started to gather his papers together.

"You are dismissed, Tsukino-san."

"D-dismissed?"

"Yes. Enjoy your vacation." Then, he smiled at her, a secret smile. "I'll be looking forward to seeing you next semester."

Usagi's eyes brightened in recognition. She nodded abruptly, bowed, turned on her heel, and rushed out of the classroom, nearly tripping as she went, before her professor could change his mind.

* * *

Seiya Kou stepped out of the limousine and shielded his eyes from the bright sun. It had been raining when they arrived in Tokyo. Now the sun was out suddenly, burning away at him as if it held a personal grudge.

"Where did all this damn sun come from?" he muttered, shouldering his bag.

He didn't get an answer, because at that moment, his brother shoved him out of his way and sent him flailing over the sidewalk as he proceeded to scramble out of the limousine.

"Don't just stand there, _baka_. Move!" Yaten was good at giving orders.

Seiya decided not to acknowledge this latest order with an answer.

It was Taiki who made the most graceful exit. His long legs came out the door first and established themselves, then his broad-shouldered torso followed. He wore black-tinted sunglasses and a thin-lipped grimace. "So here we are again in Tokyo."

All three of the Kou brothers were ridiculously gorgeous and knew it. Taiki was the eldest and tallest of the three. His brow was broad and smooth, and he had keen eyes that always seemed to be looking two steps to the future. His brown hair went back smoothly, but he tied his long, sleek strands at the nape of his neck, in the fashion of all the Kou brothers.

Yaten was youngest and shortest but still of some good stature. His hair was pale and framed his face in long bangs. He wore a permanent look of distaste and boredom, which Seiya liked to call his "girly look." In fact, Yaten _was_ somewhat feminine, but it somehow only helped to _add_ to his sophisticated charm.

Seiya was the middle brother and had all the traits of the middle child's craving for attention. He could never keep his ebony hair from forming wisps about his neck and forehead, but he tied the greater amount of it back at his neck in traditional fashion. His eyes were dark blue, slanted with thick lashes, and sparkled with a know-it-all hint of mischief. He tended to smirk more than smile.

He was smirking now as he smoothed out the sleeves of his favorite red blazer.

"This is where you'll be staying," Suki said, scrambling out of the car. Suki was their music manager and had shortly cropped brown, curly hair that flew out in every direction and which always suggested that she was perhaps slightly mad.

"It's not home, but it'll have to do," Taiki said.

"It could be better," Yaten remarked.

"Well, what can I say?" Suki shrugged. "It's the perfect place, right near all the important locations. Hey, and there's twenty-four hour security; that should take care of all your fangirls, eh?" She elbowed and winked outrageously at Yaten, who reacted to this by taking two steps away from her.

Suki merely laughed. "All right, boys; let's get you settled." She motioned the bellboy waiting aimlessly at the front of the apartment building. He blinked at her a couple of times before realizing she was gesturing at him.

"This is gonna be just great," Yaten muttered, dripping with fake enthusiasm. "I'm loving this day already."

* * *

"What a gorgeous day!" Aino Minako couldn't help but do a little spin as she stepped out of the animation studio. The sun warmed her limbs. If only she were a plant. Then she could photosynthesize. "My luck's going to change soon, I just know it!"

Minkao had just come from an audition for a company looking to hire a voice actress, and she felt confident in her success. Though up till now her career as a young idol had been somewhat unfortunate, Minako gave no thought to hanging up the towel and plowed through each dull job after another, trying to make ends meet until she was famous.

But that was Minako's way. She was genuinely optimistic, not with that cheesy sort of schoolgirl optimism, but with a genuine belief that the world was good and worth living in. Her long, sunny hair (eternally drawn partly back in a fat red ribbon) seemed to reiterate this view, and her clear blue eyes sparkled with an inner vitality. It was not at all unthinkable that she should be friends with the perky – though somewhat clumsy – nurse in training. In fact, she decided to give Usagi a call right then and there.

Stopping on the curb, she removed her cell phone from her handbag and dialed her friend's number.

"Hello?" came a slightly limp voice from the other line.

"Usa-chan?"

"Oh, hi Minako."

"What's wrong with your phone," Minako scrunched up her nose. "You're not coming through too well."

"Oh . . . uh," Usagi laughed, sometimes sounding nervous, sometimes sounding like an evil can opener gone rabid, thanks to the static. "I accidentally dropped it in the sink this morning."

"Oh, well, that sounds like you," Minako said nonchalantly, relieved to hear that everything was going normally. "Listen, why don't you and I meet for lunch today? I know you don't have a class right now, and I just got finished with an audition down at the studio . . . I feel like celebrating!"

Usagi's voice brightened audibly. "Oh my gosh, Mina – you got the part!"

"No!"

"That's great, I'm so –. Wait. You didn't?"

"Nooooo, but I have a really good feeling about this one."

"Okay, well . . . good enough reason, I guess. I'm in the mood for Italian today."

"Great!" Minako grinned. "Pizza Hut it is!"

"But I was thinking – "

"Meet you in twenty." Minako hung up the phone. She breathed in deeply and smiled. Her luck was going to change all right; she just knew it.

* * *

"Wait – Minako! Ugh." Usagi pressed the off button on her cell phone using one hand. She did this because her other arm was preoccupied with carrying her grocery bag. "She just couldn't wait for me to drop of my groceries, could she?" Usagi muttered, and swung the paper bag from her left hip to her right.

As she did this, she tried to shove her phone into her school bag and do an about face all at once. Unfortunately, this required that she keep her eyes on only one thing that she was trying to accomplish, and the other thing that she was doing at that moment was turning around.

Straight into a striding pedestrian.

The full momentum of Usagi's swift turn and the walker's brisk trot combined created a disastrous affect. The brown paper bag went up. The brown paper bag went down. And the contents went everywhere. They burst forth into the air like a volcano eruption of Campbell's Soup cans, lettuce, and instant ramen.

Nor only that, but Usagi immediately sustained an injury to the side of her face and came crashing down on the sidewalk straight onto the afore-mentioned bruised knee.

Naturally, she was quite busy, or she would have noticed that her collision partner had a few casualties of his own. His glasses had flown off, clattering to the grown as he fell back onto his further leg to regain his balance from the impact.

_Poor baby_.

The glasses rocked smugly on the pavement next to Usagi's knee, which she clasped to against her body tensely like an infant and moaned, "Why, God?"

The stranger looked down rather bewilderedly.

"Hey."

Usagi looked up.

"Watch where you're going."

WHAT!

"_You_ ran into _me_!" she snapped.

"I'm sorry," he said, bending over to reclaim his sunglasses, "I seem to recall it was you who turned around so suddenly."

"I beg your pardon!" Usagi managed to place a little fist on either hip while trying to scramble up from the still-damp pavement. She took a brief surveillance of the damage. Half the cans had rolled across the street – and those were the ones that hadn't been crushed by flying traffic. "Hey, you're gonna have to pay for those, you know," she extended an index finger at him menacingly and pointed with the other arm.

The stranger's gaze trailed down her limb and continued on to where she pointed. A few wisps of lettuce blew about like leafy tumbleweeds. He looked back. "I don't have to pay for anything," he informed her matter-of-factly.

Usagi felt the familiar sting inside her nose but resolved right then and there never to cry in front of strange men. She saddled up to him defiantly, placing herself squarely in front of his line of vision so he would have to look at her. "Y-you – you're a – an idiot!"

To her dismay, he leaned forward and down a little, meeting her challenge – literally – head on. "Do you _know_ who I _am_?"

"Wh – no!"

"I'm _Seiya Kou_."

"Alright, well – _Seiya Kou_ – the least you could do is help me pick up my groceries."

He leaned back a little. "You – don't know who I am, do you?"

She blinked at him, eyebrows still furrowed, and the whole effect was rather sweet, though unintentional.

"Hm," he shrugged and replaced his sunglasses. "That's a first." And he immediately walked deftly around her and continued on his way.

"Hey!" Usagi called after him. "Hey, where are you going?"

"Home!" he replied, without turning around.

"You – you aren't even going to help me?" Usagi called plaintively, her voice ending on a pathetically high note.

He tossed his hand over his shoulder casually.

As she watched his retreating back furiously, Usagi concluded that she had never met anyone more _arrogant_ in her entire life. 


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: I don't own Sailormoon, etc., etc._

* * *

**2**

Studying for pre-med exams was roughly equivalent to putting one's head in a vice and then diving to the bottom of the ocean without a pressurized scuba suit. Fortunately, Ami Mizuno was quite accustomed to self-torture. In fact, she was barely viewable between a mountain of books and papers, stacked and poised for an avalanche at any moment in the public library.

"Mizuno-sama!"

Ami started, which sent the pile of books tumbling down in a clutter of indecipherable notes.

She blinked rapidly and removed her reading glasses.

The fuzzy, round face smoothed and came into view.

"Kyo-chan! Don't startle me like that!"

The roughly dressed little boy adopted a pathetically apologetic expression. "I'm sorry, Mizuno-sama," he said, bowing slightly. "I was so excited to see you here, you see. I'm stuck on an algebra problem, and I can't figure it out!"

"Er – that's too bad, Kyo – "

"Won't you please help me; just this once?"

Ami sighed and tapped her glasses on the smooth table. Library tables were her favorite place to work. They were always cool and clean-smelling. "I'm studying for my own exams, I'm afraid."

"But you're my best tutor – and the only one who could get me to understand it."

Ami licked her lips and frowned prettily. Her deep-set, dewy eyes shimmered a little, as they were prone to do occasionally. She was known for her soft-spokenness and intellect, as it was quite easily deciphered from her physical demeanor. She was rather short and kept her hair likewise. The deep blue of her hair tucked inward around her chin and neck, almost shyly, and her bangs had a tendency to creep into her eyes.

"Please, Mizuno-sama!"

"All right." She smiled and rose, touching the boy lightly on his back as he led her over to oversized red armchair.

When the smallish boy sat in it, it appeared to swallow him like a hungry tongue.

Ami came around the back of it and leaned over on her elbows, peering over Kyo's shoulder at the open book on his lap.

"What's wrong with this equation? I'm doing it all right, I think, but every time it comes out wrong."

"Ah," Ami pointed brightly. "There you are. You forgot to change the figure to a negative when you multiplied."

Kyo made a face. "But I didn't have to do that before."

"That's because you weren't multiplying – you were adding and subtracting. It's different. Try it now."

Kyo scribbled a bit on his eraser-smudged notebook paper. The answer came out right.

* * *

Taiki strode into the library, long hair swinging like a rope behind him. He tucked his hands into his pockets and looked around. 

"And now," he said to himself, "for a bit of light reading."

His brothers had taken no time at all to get settled into their new apartment, when Suki had shooed them out.

"Take a look around the town. Get used to this area. It's going to be your new home now." Her smile was so quirkily enthusiastic that it made Taiki shudder to recall it.

The three brothers had set out in different direction, each taking to his own personal hobbies and interests.

Now he looked around the library, surveying it. It was clean, well organized, and appeared to have a good collection. He ventured further in, moving in and out of the rows of shelved books, a dense forest of knowledge. And there was nothing Taiki liked better than knowing things.

He came out into a little, sun-bathed opening and stopped. There was a bit of a disturbance here. It _looked_ like a young, nondescript woman sitting in a large armchair (which seemed about ready to inhale or swallow her, one of the two), leaning over a book; several young people of various shapes and ages surrounded her. A fat high school boy practically breathed down her neck; a middle-schooler with bright red pigtails sat at her feet, elbows resting on her knees, listening; a third boy leaned on her shoulder affectionately, as if he was well acquainted with her.

He walked softly, with swift movements, so as not to disturb them. He leaned in a bit to listen.

"You've got to balance the equation," the young woman was saying, and he thought, now that he had a closer look, that she wasn't so nondescript after all. At first glance, her introversion created the illusion of the commonplace, but upon closer inspection, she was rather individual.

"Each element has a certain number of atoms; that's how we distinguish them. And we've got to take them into account when determining the compound result." She leaned over a notebook and wrote smoothly but quickly. Then she straightened and looked at the large boy. "You see?"

He nodded for her to continue.

At his approval, she leaned back over the notebook and continued.

Taiki came around the chair, and leaned over the to get a look at her notes. The chubby high-schooler saw him and flared his nostrils in such a way as to put Taiki in mind of a hi-bred cross between a horse and a pig.

The woman wrote some more and finished triumphantly. "There you are! The answer is forty-two."

There were a few murmurs of relief and admiration.

"No it isn't."

She widened her eyes and looked around bewilderedly for the person who commented. "What?"

"Forty-two is the wrong answer."

She leaned her head back slowly, and gave him a look like a child about to be put to bed without dessert.

He looked down at her matter-of-factly. "The answer is forty-six. That's an alkaline metal; it changes the equation."

A light blush bled softly into her cheeks, and she lowered he head modestly. "No, not in this case it doesn't," she said quietly.

"What are you saying?" he said, rather harshly. The sound of it contrasted metallically with her gentle speech.

"In this case, the mercury reacts differently and forms irregular molecules. It's forty-two."

He narrowed his eyes at her; came around the chair and snatched the paper from her hand, studying it. After a while, he slowly returned it to her. "You're pretty smart," he said.

"And you're rather rude."

It took him three whole seconds to realize he'd been insulted, because she said it so warmly and casually, he couldn't quite gain his bearings.

"If you'll please excuse us," she continued, "we were doing just fine studying before you came along."

"Whatever." He started to walk off.

"Hey!"

He stopped and craned his neck.

The pig-tailed girl had risen and was pointing at him now. "Aren't you Taiki Kou?"

His face remained placid. "Yes."

"Of the Three Lights Taiki Kou?"

"Yes," he said, particularly, just to spite her. "That's me."

"Oh my gosh!" came the concretely inevitable reply. The girl clasped her hands fervently. "Oh my gosh, I – I love your band! Will you sign an autograph for me?"

Rather than answer right away with a smug "no" or an even smugger "yes," Taiki did a strange thing. He looked down at the blue-haired young woman.

She was watching him expectantly but not in recognition. She was waiting. Waiting to see what he would do.

He turned slowly, his broad shoulders straightening.

* * *

_Author's Note: I do, in fact, remember a bit of chemistry from my high school years. However, the arithmetic mentioned above is utter nonsense. S_


End file.
